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Gatecrash: What's Hot So Far?

We’re about 100 cards into Magic: The Gathering’sGatecrash spoiler/preview season. We’ve got a special preview card to share on January 17 and our full set evaluation will begin on January 21, just in time to warm-up for the Prerelease Events on January 26-27. But what cards are already looking especially interesting from the Simic, Gruul, Dimir, Orzhov, and Boros camps?

Clan Defiance

Remember Branching Bolt? Clan Defiance allows you to hit a player and potentially two target creatures with your X burn spell and it only costs a single point of mana more than a standard Fireballto get going! Red/green beatdown and ramp decks get removal and burn all in one with this spell in a brutally efficient Gruul roll up. With color splashing and manabases enhanced with the shocklands back in the mix, this card could show up in a variety of templates.

Ghor-Clan Rampager

Versatile and aggressive, Ghor-Clan Rampager offers a potent and cost-effective pump “spell” via bloodrush or can do work on the field as a reasonably priced 4/4 with trample that will adore receiving other bloodrush boons. Count on these guys to be high picks in Limited.

Lazav, Dimir Mastermind

If your friends love to field Invisible Stalkers, this new addition to the hexproof brigade may be your new worst nightmare. The ability is always going to be in your favor (It’s a “may” ability, take note) so Lazav will always be a 3/3 hexproof creature at minimum, albeit for four very specific mana. Players that are using some auxillary “mill” style abilities will be able to take full advantage of Lazav, but the fun hardly ends there – It works on creature cards placed into the graveyard from anywhere. So if you’re packing some discard to back up this legendary shapeshifter or simply take out your opponent’s best creature on the board, it’s now yours to use and abuse. And now it has hexproof!

Obzedat, Ghost Council

Better call the Ghostbusters, because the Ghost Council of Orzhova has a new “spiritual successor”. The new council is a bit larger, doesn’t require any sacrificial snacks to move in and out of gamespace, and drains double the life. There’s a catch though – The ability isn’t quite as flexible as it’s predecessor in regards to timing.

Prime Speaker Zegana

Casting and resolving a Zegana with a creature of any substance on the table is going to be a game ending affair. Not only do players get a potentially enormous Zegana, the card advantage a successful entrance provides should be enough to either keep the machine chugging along or close out the game. And there are environments where the casting cost is almost irrelevant – If you haven’t noticed already, these Gatecrash guild leaders are stellar options for Commander decks.

Biovisionary

Do you enjoy coming up with decks that opponents never see coming? Biovisionary may be the perfect item for your toolbox. All you have to do is copy, clone, and shapeshift your way to victory! Going to be interesting to see how this one turns out.

Assemble the Legion

A five mana enchantment may not seem like exactly the tool a Boros deck is looking for to finish off a game. But it could be. In fact, Assemble the Legion has a spectrum of applications that make it potentially terrifying. Assemble the Legion is a nightmare for control decks – And could also be a win condition for a control deck. Could it work as a curve topper in the aggro deck? Maybe. Assemble the Legion could work equally well as a card that wants time and a stable environment to grow, as sweepers and cleaners don’t do much slow down the ever growing tide of Soldiers, with a hasty, bigger batch ready to battle each turn.

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Comments

thank you very much for this really nice preview. My son *8years old* just start playin Magic . His first Tournament the Return to Ravnica Prerelease with Rakdos and your help. It really worked. He finished 3rd position (about 30 players at the Tournament). Only Izzet and a stupid Planeswalker stopped his way to victory Lol! He is thinking to play with Boros this time , a good choice ??? Greetings from Italy!

I’m no expert yet. But I think Boros in a limited setting (like a prerelease) might be real solid. It is susceptible to removal screwing up it’s battalion, but it also has access to white Orzhov cards, giving you a mana sink if you keep top-decking cheap batallion creatures.

I would also look out for Gruul to do some heavy damage, especially with the guildmage and the Rampager.

It will be interesting to see how blue handles these fiesty guilds. . .